The preparations for when King Cyrus comes and they hand me over to him. The fall in Ian’s expression tells me he knows exactly what she’s talking about.
“But we will make more of an effort. Micah, I want you and the Kask brothers out every night looking for this intruder.” She looks back at her lover.
Who doesn’t look pleased. But he nods.
“Fine,” Ian says as he turns for the door. “About time you put that hot head man-whore to use.”
And I would have let loose the scream if Elle hadn’t clasped her hand around my mouth.
Ian is standing in the doorway when Micah jumps on him. Fangs extended, muscled body rippling and flying through the air. They collide and go tumbling down the stairs.
But Micah howls in pain, covering his eyes. It’s still six and the sun is not yet sunk into the horizon. His eyes are burning in pain. Micah scrambles back into the house.
Ian clambers along the ground away from the House, still barely grasping the crossbow. There’s a hint of fear in his eyes, but even more, there’s lividity. “Touch me again and I swear I’ll stake you!”
“I see you again and you’re dead!” Micah roars. But his pride is wounded. He stalks back into the House without another word or a backward glance.
“I suggest you never come back.” Jasmine is stone cold. She shuts the door in Ian’s face, and my view of him is cut off.
“We should go,” Elle whispers. “We should go now.”
I’m shaking and trembling. I can hear Micah upstairs throwing a tantrum. Crashing sounds, hissing roars of frustration. Jasmine speaks quietly to Markov, but I can’t hear anything anymore.
“Let’s go.” Elle grabs my wrist and starts leading me off the veranda. I stumble along after her numbly. Through the trees and the swamp, back toward her car.
Ian just went and ruined everything.
THE ENTIRE DRIVE HOME, ELLE tries to call Ian. He doesn’t answer her calls. He doesn’t answer mine. So we head straight back to the Ward property.
And we both sigh a big breath of relief when we find Ian’s van parked next to the cabin. We pile out of the car and barge through the front door.
Ian looks up at us from a duffle bag he’s packing. For a moment, he seems surprised to see us together. But then his eyes are cold and hard.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I blurt. I take five aggressive steps to close the distance between us and shove him in the chest. Hard.
He stumbles back two steps and clenches his teeth, his lips pursed. His fingers ball into fists, his nostrils flare as he lets out a hard breath. For a second, I think he’s going to hit me.
“We saw you tonight. Your sister, who you’re supposed to be protecting,” I poke him in the chest, “and I, we, followed you to the House tonight. We saw you acting like an idiot. We saw Micah attack you.” My voice cracks. Suddenly, tears have welled up in my eyes and my throat feels tight. And that makes me angry.
I don’t want to care this much.
I don’t want to be this scared for someone else.
“You can’t do stuff like that, Ian,” Elle says quietly. I look over at her. There are no tears in her eyes, but she’s pale and scared. “They hate you already. Don’t give them a reason to kill you.”
“I can’t just sit by and do nothing,” Ian hisses. His fingers flex and clench harder. “You know who got attacked last night? The mayor’s wife. That’s right, Dotty Jackson was attacked. Her husband called 911 because she was lying there like she was in a coma. And just as we got there, she woke up, bit her husband, and took off. I couldn’t catch her. And now she’s out there in Silent Bend, rabid and wild and out of control, with a Debt to a faceless enemy. Someone is trying to take our town down. And I’m not going to just sit by and let this happen. If the House isn’t going to do anything about it, then I will.”
He opens a cupboard, grabs a shotgun, and throws it into his bag.
“But you can’t go running around pissing Jasmine and the House off,” I say, my fire dimming, being smothered out by my fear. “Especially Micah. He will do anything for Jasmine. And Markov is just plain psychotic. He’ll kill you for fun and do it with a smile on his face.”
“Ian, please listen to her,” Elle whispers.
He stalks across the room and pulls the cushions off the couch to retrieve a huge handful of stakes.
“I’m going to find this terrorist, and I’m going to stop them.” Ian zips up the bag and slings it over his shoulder. He shoves his way between Elle and I and opens the door.
“Ian, please.” I grab his wrist and make him stop.